July 2013

July 30, 2013

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has not decided whether
quarterback Tony Romo will play in the Hall of Fame game against the Miami
Dolphins in Sunday's preseason opener.

But he has determined that Romo has done enough through the
first week of camp that he deserves a veteran's day off. Romo will not practice
Tuesday afternoon as the Cowboys concentrate on a goal line and short yardage
work on offense.

Considering that the entire team will be off Wednesday, it
means that Romo will actually have two days of rest of practice, which should
prove beneficial down the road.

“We’re trying to give some of our more veteran players a little
bit of time off throughout camp and this will be a day that we choose for him,”
Garrett said. “It’s a short-yardage and goal-line day for most of it. So it’s a
nice bonus day. The other thing we’re trying to do is put some of these days
off up against a real day off, so the concept of you give a player a day off
that helps rejuvenate him. You give him two days off, it can be life-changing
for them. That’s a little bit of the thought process."

Garrett however made it clear that there are no concerns or
issues with Romo's health and certainly nothing related to the back surgery
that sidelined him during the off season. He started out camp a little rusty because
of the time off but has gotten better and more polished every day.

“I think he’s made great progress each and every day,”
Garrett said. “I think you just see it. Like with a lot of guys in your first
day at camp, there’s a little rust that you have. Your feet always aren’t
underneath you whatever position you play and you’re just kind of feeling your
back into football. I think Tony had some of that. But each and every day
throughout camp, he’s gotten better and better and better. I think his feet are
much better. I think he’s moving more naturally and instinctively. Again, that
happens with everybody when you start playing football again every year. It was
noticeable to me that he’s just improving each and every day.”

In 2003, the Denver Broncos offered undrafted free agent Tony Romo $20,000 to sign. The Cowboys offered $10,000. Romo signed with the Cowboys, thinking his chances were better of making their 53-player roster than the Broncos. The Cowboys cut Quincy Carter during camp, and well, you know the rest of the story.

Soon after Romo signed a $108 million extension in March, he got a text message from former coach Bill Parcells: “I was just wondering if coming to Dallas had worked out for you.”

Almost every day in camp, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has
been asked about Lance Dunbar.

Almost every day, Garrett finds something good to say about
the smallish second-year running back, who has leaped ahead of every other back
in camp except DeMarco Murray. Monday, Garrett talked up Dunbar’s
tire-flipping skills.

Yep. Tire-flipping skills.

“We do a drill in the off-season … tire flipping,” Garrett
said. “It’s a part of their conditioning. It’s really good for leverage. We
create competitive situations – four guys are over here, four guys are over
here – kind of a relay race. I go over by the tennis court there at Valley
Ranch, and Dunbar’s mixed in there with all
the tight ends – all these big, tall guys who are long, strong, explosive. And
literally the tire looks bigger than Dunbar. And
I’m like ‘Who drew the short straw here?’ And he goes out there and he
does that drill as well as anybody in that group.”

Garrett said that’s an example of the strength and
determination Dunbar is using to get noticed
in camp.

“He’s a little guy, but he’s quick,” Garrett said. “He’s explosive,
he knows what to do, and he loves playing football … He’s a very good receiver,
and he’s got good vision as a runner. His biggest issue is he’s not a real big
guy, and sometimes that causes problems in pass protection. But again, he
sticks his nose in there and blocks the guy.”

Garrett allowed that the Cowboys do have to consider Dunbar’s size when they think about how to use him. But
he said Dunbar “believes he’s a complete back,”
and so he is going to get chances to do more things.

“He’s a very good pass receiver,” Garrett said, asked to say
what makes Dunbar unique. “He just has a good
understanding, for a young player, of how to release, how to work guys. He
understands leverage, angles. He’s quick and explosive and can separate really
well as a route runner.”

Jerry Jones insists fans win from the stadium name change from Cowboys to AT&T. Cowboys fans just want their team to win.

The Cowboys are 17-15 at home since the stadium opened in Arlington in 2009. They also have a playoff victory there. The Cowboys were only 4-4 at home last season when they went 8-8.

"AT&T Stadium, parking lot and the moon," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said when asked why the team hasn't played better at home. "We need to play better everywhere. You’re always looking at your schedule. You’re always looking at how you’re doing things to make sure your team gets off to a good start, can sustain itself and then play well at the end. You’re doing that regardless of what environment you’re playing in. We have played some good games at home. Other games haven’t been quite as good. I don’t know that it has anything to do with that stadium. It has something to do with us as players and coaches. So we’ve got to make sure we’re at our best every opportunity we get."

There can be advantages to being a practice squad player.
Ben Bass knows.

The second-year defensive end, playing first-team because
Anthony Spencer and Tyrone Crawford are hurt, spent most of last season on the
practice squad, and that is where he learned some versatility.

“Last year I was Julius Peppers when we played the Chicago
Bears. I was Geno Atkins when we played the Bengals,” he said at training camp over the weekend. “They put me in
different positions. They asked me to play a nose, a 3-technique, an end, a
head-up 5 in a 3-4 defense depending on what team we were facing that week.”

Bass said assistant defensive line coach Leon Lett
encouraged him about playing end, and he also credited former assistant
defensive line coach Brian Baker with his development last year.

“ ‘Big Cat’ was the one who told me, ‘Yeah, you can play
end,’ Bass said. “I knew I could, but it’s kind of nice when somebody
reinforces what you believe.”

July 29, 2013

New York Yankees manager Joe Giradi visited Cowboys practice Monday and gave a speech to the team after practice that sounded eerily familiar to the messages they routinely hear from coach Jason Garrett about focusing on today.

"It was a great lesson," tight end Jason Witten said. "He talked about we all know what your goals are but the way you get there is to be great today, kind of the Jason slogan. Be your best today and worry about tomorrow because if you take care of today all that stuff will work out as an athlete. I think it's great. Those guys play 162 games. It's great or guys like us in the middle of camp to realize it's all about better now. You can't worry about week 17 now. You got to get there. Hopefully we are better cause of what we are doing right now."

The Cowboys play their first exhibition game Sunday in Canton, and Romo might or
might not play. Coach Jason Garrett has said sitting out Romo is a
consideration, with the Cowboys playing five preseason games, but they have
not decided yet.

“I always like to play,” Romo said. “But we’ll do whatever
the coach says. That’s part of being a team. We’ve got to get some guys some
looks and do some things.”

The last time the Cowboys played in the Hall of Fame Game,
in 2010, Romo played one series. He completed 5-of-10 passes for 59 yards,
leaving after leading the Cowboys on a field-goal drive.

He doesn’t agree with the theory that he needs more playing
time because of his absence this offseason.

“If I did play, it would be a series,” Romo said.
“Whether you went eight plays or three plays, I’m not sure how much that is
going to affect that. Saying that, I still want to play every time I suit up.
Every time I step out there, your juices are flowing, and you want to compete.
From that perspective, yeah, but whatever the coaches want.”

Receiver Terrence Williams, the rookie third-round pick from Baylor, had a slow start to training camp with a couple of dropped passes earlier. He has steadily improved and had arguably his best day during Sunday's scrimmage.

Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Williams still has a long way to go but they never worried about him because they trusted the words of Baylor coach Art Briles who detailed them before the draft about what kind a person Williams was, his passion for the game and his work ethic. Garrett said Briles has proved to be right.

"Yeah, Terrance works really hard," Garrett said. "It’s really important to him. We had some good information on Terrance coming out because of Jancy Briles’ dad down there – Art Briles at Baylor. We felt like we had a good feel for what he was like as a person and he was dead on in his evaluation. Every one of these guys comes out and you can see the tangible traits they have. How tall they are, how long they are, how fast they are, how high they can jump – the whole deal. What makes players great though is what they’re all about. And how important it is to them as a person and that’s how those guys develop into the potential that they have. We felt like he was a really good young man who thought that football was important to him and he was going to work at it and try to be his best. And that’s what we’ve seen from him.

He’s one of those guys you can coach hard and keep coaching him hard and that’s a good thing," Garrett said. "I think he’s understanding better and better how to take coaching and when you coach him hard, it’s in his best interest. He’s really been receptive to receivers coach Coach (Derek) Dooley and what we’re trying to get across to him. And you see him getting better and better each day. We put him in these situations and really day in and day out he’s made the big catch to give us the first down to allow us to kick the field goal. He’s done it three or four days in a row. I think he’s getting more and more confident each and every day. Obviously he has a long ways to go. There are so many technical things that he’s not good at right but he’s working at it."

After
not making much of a splash in the first week of training camp, rookie running
back Joseph Randle popped up a bit in Sunday’s scrimmage. He made some strong
runs into the middle of the line, and he had a breakaway run late.

“I
thought it was good,” coach Jason Garrett said of the performance. “Joseph’s a
good football player. That’s why we drafted him where we did. He’s big. He
looks bigger in pads than maybe he does in the cafeteria. He carries his pads
well. He’s got quickness and explosiveness.”

The
Cowboys took Randle in the fifth round, expecting him to develop into insurance
in case of an injury to DeMarco Murray. But second-year veteran Lance Dunbar
has zoomed past him in camp, and third-year player Phillip Tanner has been more
consistent. Randle, who couldn’t practice in the offseason because of a thumb injury,
is battling undrafted rookie Kendial Lawrence for snaps and attention.

“He
makes mistakes, like all the young guys do, but he’s learning, and then he goes
out there and plays fast,” Garrett said. “So a lot of positive traits that he
has both as a runner and a receiver. He’s not afraid to stick his nose in there
and block, either. So, a long way to go, but off to a good start.”

Cowboys defensive tackle Jason Hatcher went onto the field from the sideline at one point during practice Sunday, screaming at the team's defensive backups. He strongly encouraged them to do better.

It was only a little over a year ago that Hatcher went on local radio and questioned the team's leadership. He's now answering it by being one.

"I’m just serving my purpose, man," Hatcher said. "Whether or not I’m a leader, if somebody gets out of line, I’m going to put them back in line. I’m not here to try to take over this whole team or whatever. But I’m just doing my job, and that’s a small part of this team. If everybody does their job, we’ll be OK."

With all the talk of leaders and leadership, Hatcher seems to be one of the players who has heeded Jason Garrett's call. Now in his eighth season, Hatcher is stepping up and holding the young players accountable.

"It's with words," Garrett said. "It's with actions. You have to try to influence the other guys. The guys with the most influence on this team are the most experienced guys, the best players. It's their job to step up, my job, the coaches job, the leaders job to step up, and whatever role you find yourself in, you can be a leader. You can influence people in the proper direction."